Writer's Block
by Starkidtheatregeek
Summary: Darren can't finish the song he needs to, and ends up in a bad mood because of it, what will the rest of Starkid do to cheer him up and get the song finished? Set during AVPS
1. Writer's Block

**I know I normally do LaurWalkers, but I just got inspired with this one. It's about Darren, mostly, but Joey is another main character. There is some LaurWalk in this, just not this chapter. This is also one of the shorter chapters. More coming soon!**

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><p>"Darren, man, you've been working on the same three chords for, like, three hours! Take a break!" Joey said, exasperated, "We are supposed to be at rehearsal in ten minutes!"<p>

"Yeah, a rehearsal where we are supposed to be working on this song!"

"Maybe A.J can help you!"

"Yeah, if he knew what it was supposed to sound like! Plus, he won't even be there!"

"Fine," Joey said, "be that way! But we have to go, we're kind of the main characters. You can work on that in the car."

Darren sighed, put his guitar in its' case, and grabbed his pencil and notebook. He hurried down the stairs into the lobby to catch up with Joey, who was already in the car, waiting. He opened the shotgun door with two free fingers, hopped into the car, shut the door and got out his guitar. The rest of the car ride, he worked on the same chords, and by the time they arrived, he still didn't have them right. In defeat, he walked into the rehearsal room.

"Finally! We thought you'd never get here!" Lauren called out from across the room where she'd been in deep discussion with Joe Walker, "So let's hear the song."

Darren grimaced, and unpacked his guitar once again. He played and sang the first part wonderfully, then he stopped where he got to those three chords, having not written past them.

After an awkward pause, Dylan asked, "Is that it?"

"Um, for now," Darren admitted.

"Why?" Jim asked.

"Look, I've been working on this song all day and I just can't get past these chords, so why don't we go over something else?" he snapped back.

"Sure," Julia said, seeing how upset he was, "we can go over the mirror scene, we still haven't gotten that one done all the way."

"That's a good idea," Matt said, "then we can go over the opening scene if we have time."

Darren could feel their disappointment, the song he was working on was one of the most anticipated ones, everyone wanted to see what Joe could pull out of the hat for it. He had all the lyrics, he just couldn't get through the chorus, and then he had to make a dance break too.

"C'mon, Darren, we can't start the scene without you!" Bonnie called.

The rehearsal dragged on and on for Darren, he wanted to go home, sleep, and then finish the song. Finishing the song was crucial, it was the last one he had to write, as well as one of the funniest, he just had to find inspiration.

As soon as rehearsal was over, Darren raced out, not saying goodbye to anybody. He sat in the car and waited for Joey to get there so he could leave.


	2. Cheer Him Up!

**Here's the next chapter! I love you guys so much! Thank you for all the support! I would post the next chapter too, but A. I have too much homework, and B. Where's the fun without a bit of suspense? Thank you again!**

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><p>"What's his problem today" Matt asked Joey, "He seemed real worked up about something."<p>

"Part of it is he's tired, but I think he feels bad about not having the song done, feels like he let you down."

"Naw, it's fine!" Joe told him, "It means I didn't have to sing today!" he finished with a little ballerina twirl that ended with him falling over, which cause Lauren to burst out into uncontrollable laughter. Joe looked pleased with himself.

"He's been working on it literally all day, and he just can't get past those three chords, I suggested he take to A.J about it multiple times, but he refused, he's so stubborn!" Joey continued, defending Darren.

"We get it, it's perfectly fine!"

"Sounds like he needs to have some fun!" Julia suggested mischieviously.

"You do realize that it's my dorm too, right?" Joey asked her.

"Yeah, we could go to my place! Plus, I figure everywhere in your guy's place is covered in music."

"No! I wanna sleep tonight!" a pretty grossed-out Lauren put in.

"You could go to Joe's," Julia said.

"Then I really won't get any sleep," she grumbled.

"What the devil? No! She most certainly is not coming to our place," a still-in-character Joe Moses said.

"You two can go out, there are other ways to have fun! Go laser-tagging or go-karting or something! Maybe he needs some competition!" Dylan interrupted, thinking that that discussion could go on for hours, "Get his mind out of school! Maybe to do that, you guys would have to go away from school."

"Yeah, I can see how that would be beneficial…"


	3. Shower

**Here it is, Chapter 3! I like this chapter a lot, and one of my favorite lines that I have ever written is in this chapter. If any of you can guess which one it is, i will love you forever! More chapters coming soon. This one will be kinda long, mostly because it's what I do at school when I'm bored, which is a lot. **

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><p>"Took you long enough," Darren grumbled when Joey got in the car.<p>

"You've got a date tonight, buddy, so I would suggest improving your mood!"

"I don't care! Wait, what?" he said, completely taken aback, "Since when?"

"Since about ten minutes ago. Julia's gonna pick you up at five."

"Where are we going? Her place?"

"No, Lauren didn't like that idea, and Moses didn't like it when we suggested she go to their place, so you're going out."

"Where?" Darren asked, starting to get impatient.

"Laser-tagging, go-karting, rock-climbing."

"Why?"

"Well we, I mean, Julia figured you could use a break."

"So this was a group discussion?" Darren practically yelled, his frustration surfacing again.

"Dude, calm down, we're all worried about you! You'be been under a lot of stress lately, and we think you just need some fun." Joey pulled into a parking place and got out of the car, Darren followed his lead.

When they got to the dorm, Joey said, "Dude, you need to take a shower, I think something had babies and then died in your hair."

Darren laughed, "Doesn't surprise me, it's happened before! And would you mind picking up some of my crap while I'm in there? I don't really want to have to deal with it. Now I'm gonna plug my iPod in to its speaker, put it on high, and sing along with it."

As soon as the music turned on, Joey started picking up Darren's music that was scattered throughout the tiny dorm. Most of it was illegible, but the stuff that could be read looked pretty good. He found a completed version of a song called "Stutter" that looked completely different from what Darren had shown them in rehearsal, but still looked like it was from the same scene. Joey wondered what the problem with it was. After picking up everything else, Joey looked at "Stutter" more closely, and found that he liked it very much.

Joey heard the music shut off, and hid the music, a plan forming in his head. Darren emerged from the bathroom, with wet hair and a huge smile on his face. "Somebody's in a good mood," Joey noted.

"Yeah, I just spent an hour in the shower, and that totally rhymed!"

"Yup, the staff is gonna murder us."

"Who cares?"

"Our parents?" the two boys cracked up, then started laughing even harder when they realized they had no clue what they were laughing about.

Something pounded on the wall, and they heard a muffled yell, "Shut the hell up!"

"How 'bout you?" Joey yelled back.

Someone knocked on the door, "Crap! The staff has come for us!" Darren yelled.

Joey went to see who it was and Darren went to put a shirt on. "It's Julia!" Joey yelled, "Put your pants on before I let her in!" he continued, even louder than before.

Darren heard Julia giggle "Thanks," he replied sarcastically.

"I'm letting her in in five, four, three, two, one!" and he opened the door with a flourish.

"You're so immature, Joey!" Julia giggle, "I think the whole building just heard that."

"Not like they've heard worse before," Darren told her.

"You ready to go?" Julia asked.

"Yeah, just let me put my shoes on," he said, sticking his arm under the bed to grab his Converse.

Joey walked over to Julia and whispered, "So I found a completed song for Umbridge, so I'm gonna take it over to Joe to get him to show Darren how awesome it is."

"Sounds like a plan," Julia nodded, "Darren, you're hopeless, your shoes are right there," she said pointing at the balcony door.

"I knew they were there," he replied, laughing unconvincingly. As soon as his shoes were on, he hopped up and said, "Alright! Where exactly are we going?"

"Oh, you'll see!" Julia replied coyly.

"Aw, don't I get a hug?" Joey complained playfully, laughing when Darren glared at him. "I'm so joking, dude! Have fun you two lovebirds!" he called after them.


	4. Improvising

**Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long! In return I've given you a pretty long chapter! This is a major LaurWalk chapter, I just can't help it, I'm sorry! It's not solely focused on that though, this is not a true LaurWalker.**

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><p>Ten minutes later, Darren still had no clue where he and Julia were going; she refused to give him any hints at all. Finally, they pulled up in front of the coffee shop where they had both met.<p>

Darren's eyes widened, and Julia giggled, "We aren't going to the improv night, are we?" he asked.

"Of course we are!" she replied, happy to know she had surprised him.

Darren blushed, remembering how they'd met there, doing improv. He had run into her, and they were rude to each other for the rest of the skit until they kissed at the end. They both had felt the spark, but had refused to talk about it, especially since both of their dates were there, neither of them particularly happy with the new development.

They got out of the car, went around the front and grabbed each other's hands. Together, they walked into the coffee shop.

"Wait, Joey said that we were going go-karting," Darren broke the silence.

"Joey doesn't know anything, I figured you would enjoy this more," Julia responded.

"I like this better anyway."

The crowd was relatively small, but that made it better. Several regulars were there, but one unexpected couple was there.

"Lauren? Joe? What are you doing here?" Julia asked.

The couple quickly untangled themselves and said simultaneously, "Nothing."

"Double-date baby!" Darren yelled with mischievous glee.

"Oh no," Joe said glancing at Lauren, "we're just hanging out, just friends and all."

"Right, because just friends sit in a café hitting their teeth together," Julia said sarcastically.

"Yeah," Darren continued, "hey Jules, you wanna go over in that corner over there and be just friends?"

"Sure, c'mon, let's go!" she pulled on his hand, pretending to drag him to the corner in question.

"Alright, we get it," Lauren laughed, "We're not just friends, but you can't tell anyone!"

"Wouldn't dream of it," Darren said as he put his phone back in his pocket, looking slightly crestfallen.

"It's only, we just started dating, and we wanted to let it be just ours for a couple weeks," Joe explained.

"Well, with behavior like that, it won't be long before the whole school knows, especially when they're here," Julia said, gesturing at the sorority girls who had just entered the building.

Lauren groaned, "What were we thinking?"

"We weren't," Joe answered simply.

"Are you guys ready for some improve or what?" a familiar voice rang through the room, the owner of which smirked when the sorority girls tossed their hair and hastily left the shop.

"Hey, B-ho!" Darren called across the room.

"Darren! What happened to go-karting?" when Darren shrugged, his eyes travelled to where he thought Darren's date should be, but choked on the water he had just tried to swallow instead. After he had recovered a bit, he gasped, "Well, well, well, what do we have here?"

Lauren and Joe quickly let go of each other's hands, "Damn, more people," Joe grumbled, "let's go back to my place Lo, maybe we'll get more privacy there," he slung his arm around her shoulder, and they left.

"Well," Brian continued, "Who's really ready for a night of improve?" everyone cheered, "Well, let's get this party started!"

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><p>Two hours later, the last scene was running, and both Darren and Julia were in it. The card for Darren's character read, "Socially awkward, has a tendency to stutter, wants to find true love." He had a general idea of what Julia's was, but wasn't entirely sure, and he was determined to find out.<p>

He sidled up to her, put his on her shoulder and said, "Hey, hey, you know that, that thing you, uh, that,"

"Yeah?" she asked with a look of mild amusement on her face. In truth, he had nearly scared the piss out of her, and she had nearly broken character. Her character card read, "Has a crush on someone unexpected," originally, she had planned it to be the guy she just talking to, but Darren's character seemed better.

"That, that one place, you know, the one that uh, I think you and your dad went to on Wednesday?" Darren stammered.

"How do you know where I was on Wednesday?"

"Oh, well, I was, I was there eating dinner, you know it's a restaurant," he rushed to explain.

"No, no it's fine, thinking back on it, I did see you there," Julia consoled him.

"Really?"

"Hey, you!" Brian yelled, pointing at Julia, "I was talking to you!" He had handed out the cards, and purposely given Darren and Julia the cards they had gotten, even though he wasn't supposed to, and was trying to keep the two apart for as long as possible.

"D-don't talk to her like that! She can talk to whoever she likes!" Darren tried bravely.

"Yeah, but I was talking to her first," Brian moved forward menacingly/

"Boys, I can choose who I want to talk to, and I can tell you one thing, it's not you," Julia said, pointing at Brian. "So come on," she added, pulling Darren away by the arm.

Darren lingered, threatening Brian, then turned around, only to find Julia's mouth on his. There were whoops and wolf-whistles from the crowd,

Feeling that the couple would not break apart for a while, Brian took the mic and yelled over the cheering crowd, "Thanks for coming! See you next time!" He walked over to the couple when everyone had left and it was starting to get awkward, "Guys, you can stop now!"

Looking sheepish, the two broke apart.

"So, do you guys know why Lauren and the Walker left? We've known they've been going out since the first day," Brian asked.

Darren shrugged, "They wanna think that it's their own thing, is my guess."

"You're the one who introduced them, Brian, what was your intent? You introduced them right after both of them had nasty breakups, why?" Julia asked, knowing he knew the answer.

"Because I wanted them to get together."

"Yeah, so why are you so shocked?"

He huffed melodramatically, "I am an actor, for your information! I can act shocked for the crowd!"

"An actor, huh?" Julia said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, an actor," Brian clarified.

"Right," Darren said, leaning over to whisper something in Julia's ear. Julia's eyes widened, and she smirked. "So, if you're such a good actor," Darren continued, "you know those scenes after your werewolf nights?" Brian nodded, "We dare you to wear just underwear in those scenes!" Darren finished triumphantly, "Show us how good of an actor you really are!" they turned to leave the café.

"I can do an entire musical in a dress, as a pussy, I think I can handle this!" he yelled at their backs.

"You know, Joe's getting a French Manicure for his part!" Julia called over her shoulder just as she and Darren went through the door, not bothering to hide her laughter.

Darren started cracking up as soon as the door closed behind them, "The look on his face when you told him that! Now he's gonna try to go all out to try to beat Joe! Oooh, this is gonna be good!"


	5. We are Making Secret Plans

**A/N: Everybody, you are amazing! I have gotten an unbelievable amount of support for this story and I can't thank you enough! Sorry for taking so long updating, in all honesty, I've had this part written for a while, but I haven't gotten around to typing it up, sorry! Any reviews are appreciated, and if my grammar and or spelling is wrong, just tell me! I don't mind!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own these people, nor do I own the song lyrics. I don't really own the title either.**

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><p>"Joey, my man! Why do you keep calling me? I'm on a date!" Joe said into his cell phone.<p>

"With who?" a teasing voice answered.

"Shit," Joe muttered, "Anyways, why do you keep calling me?"

"Well, I need you to cut your date short, I hope Lauren doesn't mind."

"How do all of you already know? I told Darren not to tell!"

"Dude, we've known since you first started dating!"

"How?"

"The way you look at each other, you know, all of that stuff."

"Fine, we were going back to my place anyway, why do you need me?" Joe sighed in defeat.

"I found a way to cheer Darren up!"

"That's great, how?"

"I found an old song he wrote for Umbridge, it's pretty cool and I want you to learn it and perform it for him!"

"Man, it's Friday night! I really don't want to!" Joe complained.

"Come one, we've got rehearsal tomorrow anyways, you can show it to him then!"

"Fine, you can come, but next time I'm not giving in so easily," he warned, then hung up. Lauren looked at him questioningly, "Joey wants me to see a song Darren wrote before Matt gave him the words the song was supposed to be. He wants me to learn it and perform it at rehearsal tomorrow," Joe explained.

"Oh, well I wish he could have waited a little longer to call," Lauren said.

"Yeah, that would have been nice." The two finished the drive in silence. When Joe parked the car, before he got out, he grabbed Lauren's hand, "So, the gang has figured out we're dating, so I guess there's no point trying to hide it anymore."

"I figured they would eventually, because they are our best friends and know us better than anyone," Lauren sighed, "and they figured it out so quickly because we were spending so much time with them." By then, they were getting out of the car and walking towards the building. They each other's hands and walked to Joe's room.

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><p>As soon as Joe opened the door, Joe Moses faced them, "Why the hell is Joey here? And why is he eating all of our food?" he demanded of them.<p>

"There you are Walker! Took you long enough!" Joey called.

"You knew he was coming and didn't tell me?" Moses said with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, I was a little busy," Joe shrugged.

"Ok, so here's the song, it's called "Stutter" and it's pretty funny, but I think you can make it hilarious," Joey said through a mouthful of food, handing him the sheet music.

"Thanks," Jo mumbled. He looked at the words, they were very different from what Matt and Nick had given Darren to make the song with. "Remember that time, when you wouldn't talk to me, no you wouldn't talk to me, yesterday!"

"That's nothing," Moses said after Joe snorted, "you should see what I have to sing."

"I can work with this," Joe confirmed, "I can definitely get this done by tomorrow."

Joey visibly relaxed, "Good."

"So, are you gonna stay here?" Moses asked irritably.

"It's not like I have anything else to do, so I might as well," Joey said stretching out on Moses' bed.

"Then get off my bed, Walker's is open."

Joey slid off of Moses' bed a walked over to Walker's, sat down, swung his legs up, and leaned back, all in a melodramatic huff.

"Where's the keyboard?" Lauren asked Joe, "You gotta figure out the tune."

"Oh, you mean the one we stole from Darren?" Moses asked across the room.

"You guys took that? He's still upset about that, you know?" Joey said.

"Yeah, where is it?" Lauren asked again.

"Under the sink in the bathroom," Moses said with a smirk.

"Kay, I'll go get it," she said.

As soon as she was out of earshot, Joey piped up teasingly, "So, how's it going with Lauren?"

"Shut it," Joe growled at him causing both of the other boys to crack up.

Lauren walked out of the bathroom with the keyboard, looking slightly confused, "I found it," she announced unnecessarily, holding it up.

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><p>An hour later, Joe had the notes down as well as what he was doing while he was signing. Moses kicked Joey out, and Joe took Lauren to her and Julia's apartment, kissing her tenderly before she went in.<p>

When he got back to his dorm, Moses looked a little disappointed, "Back so soon?" he asked.

"Yeah, got a problem with that?"

"No, just thought you and Lauren would take a bit longer," he mumbled.

"Dude, we're gonna take it at our own pace," Walker said,

"I know," Moses groaned, "but you two should've started dating years ago, and now that you actually have, you're taking it at a snail's pace!"

"What makes you say we should've started dating years ago?"

"Dude, you've liked her since you first met," Moses explained, exasperated, "Now, I'm going to bed."

"All you do is sleep!"

Moses flicked off the light and crawled into bed. Walker walked into the bathroom and stripped for a shower.

While he was in the shower, he smiled as he remembered the two kisses he and Lauren had shared. He had been so happy when Lauren said yes when he asked her out, and the happiness hadn't left yet. In all honesty, he was glad his friends had found out, jokes aside, it meant he could show his feelings all of the time.


	6. Big News

**A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for the wait! It's been super busy! Thank you for the support of this story! It's almost over :( I have one more chapter that I might just post today because this one is so short, plus I won't be able to post next Saturday. I've also started my first Harry Potter fic, but I haven't finished the first chapter, and I have no idea what the plot is supposed to be...**

**Disclaimer: I do not own these people. That would be illegal.**

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><p>Joey heard the door being unlocked and put his book down, ready to blow Darren's mind. "Hey, did you know that Lauren and Joe finally started dating?" both boys said at the same time.<p>

"Dude, how did you find out?" Joey asked.

"They were at the café me and Juls were at. But how did you find out?"

Joey cursed himself internally, then realized what café Darren was talking about, "B-Ho texted me, but I thought you two went go-karting."

"Julia said that you know nothing," Darren explained simply.

"That's great," he muttered distractedly.

"So what did you do while I was gone?"

"Went to Joe's place.

"Bet he was thrilled, both of 'em."

"Oh yeah, Moses tried to kick me out about 20 times, Walker tried about 30, I ate a lot of their food."

"Why'd you stay if they wanted you to leave?"

"Had nothing to do."

"You're really inconsiderate, Joey."

"Yeah, I know, but I don't really care," he mumbled.

"Joey, when did you get up this morning?" Darren asked, noticing Joey's huge yawns.

"Early," another yawn, "I had to work."

"Right, it's Friday. Wait, you have class on Friday!" but by then Joey was already asleep.

Darren shook his head, he was tired, but he didn't understand how Joey fell asleep so fast. Suddenly, Darren's phone rang, it was Bonnie, "Bonnie, what do you want? I was just about to go to bed!"

"Really? Sorry," but she didn't sound sorry, "But I just thought you should know that I think everyone is up to something."

"They're always up to something Bonnie! It's a miracle I go still go to sleep at night! Or in the day, for that matter!" Darren sighed, exasperated.

"Fine," she sighed, "I just thought you might want to know." Darren slapped his phone shut, not wanting to talk to her any more. Changing into something more comfortable, he pulled out his guitar. He sat down on his bed and worked on the song more. When he was slightly satisfied with what he had, he put his guitar up and went to bed.

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><p><strong>Feel the tension with Bonnie? I wonder where that will go? <strong>


	7. Surprises

**Here it is, guys, the last chapter! It's been a fun ride, and a fun story! It's got a bit of a surprise in it! Please review, anything is acceptable!**

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><p>As soon as Darren walked into rehearsal that day, the entire group fell silent. He looked around accusingly, knowing they had been talking about him. Bonnie glared back at him.<p>

"Alright, now that everyone's here," Nick called, "let's rehearse!"

"They were going over the scene where Umbridge sings, Darren had given Joe and AJ a copy, hoping it would sound alright. When they got to the music's cue, Darren looked taken aback when the music was wrong. "Wait, wait, that's not right!" he called.

Nick hopped on stage and dragged him into a seat, "Watch," he whispered.

"But I have lines!" he whisper-screamed back. Joey started singing then, "Do you remember that time, when you wouldn't talk to me, no you wouldn't talk to me, yesterday?" Darren's mouth fell open, recognizing it as the old song he had written for this scene.

Joe finished the fully-choreographed song, he and the dementors breathing very heavily. Before Darren could say anything, Bonnie exploded, "Why do you always do this? It's not funny how you always play pranks like this! It's so goddamn irritating and immature! You all act like three year olds!" and with that, she stormed out of the room.

"Never again," Matt muttered, "will we work with that bitch!" the loud talking ceased abruptly when Bonnie returned and grabbed her bag.

"So I'm a bitch now, Matt?" she asked, the hurt evident in her voice.

"Yeah," he said bluntly, the group nodded in agreement.

She stormed out yet again.

"Joe, how did you find that song? More importantly, when where you in my room?" Darren asked to break the silence.

"Did someone say Joey Richter?" Joey shouted, walking out from backstage.

"How did you find it?"

"You asked me to put your music away and it was lying on top of some other music."

"Oh."

"Well," Nick said, "I think that it will work perfectly in the show!"

"Really?" Joey asked.

"Yeah, I think it'll be a hit."


End file.
